MONDAY 8:40 AM, 11TH UPDATE (WRITETHRU COMING): Huge grosses continue for the Top 6 movies and still add up to the biggest Memorial Day weekend and the biggest 4-day holiday ever. That’s $317M total moviegoing, easily beating 2011’s all-time Memorial Weekend record of $276.7M. Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 opened to an incredible ride around the globe where it is the #1 film by far. THe worldwide cume is $317M. The four-day global cume is $300 million from all 60 territories and set new records for the franchise and the studio. It’s also Universal’s highest domestic and international opening weekend of all time even without 3D or domestic IMAX. (Its overseas-only IMAX launch generated $2+M on 59 screens.) Fast 6 took in $120 million for the four-day Memorial Weekend in North America as the 2nd biggest domestic and international opening of 2013 (behind Disney’s Iron Man 3) and the 4th highest opening for Memorial Weekend in North America. Even with no superheroes, the actioner’s racially and ethnically diverse cast attracted a broad demographic, with 32% Latinos and 49% women and 43% under age 25/57% age 25 plus. Fuller wrap-up later today. For now, here are the latest domestic box office numbers with international cumes and worldwide totals as of Monday:

SATURDAY 11:30 AM, 8TH UPDATE: Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 opened day and date with the U.S. and Canada in 59 international territories and is breaking records. The studio says it opened #1 in every territory and is dominating the box office with 65% market share. Friday’s international gross is $36M at 8,583 dates for an early total of $90M. This is Universal’s highest grossing Friday of all time and will be Universal’s biggest overseas weekend by a large margin. The international total will be $169M though Sunday. Combined with the North American estimates of $96.2M, the three-day weekend worldwide total will be $265.2M.

SATURDAY 6:30 AM, 7TH UPDATE: Summer 2013 keeps sizzling as huge grosses for the Top 6 movies add up to the biggest Memorial Day weekend and the biggest 4-day holiday eve r(numbers below). That’s potentially $300+ million, easily beating 2011’s all-time Memorial Weekend record of $276M. Yowza! The easy #1 is Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 pulling ahead with $39M Friday (including Thursday late shows and Friday midnights) to target $121M for the holiday weekend from 3,658 domestic theaters. After 12 years, five films and more than $1.5 billion at the global box office, the sixth Fast & Furious installment successfully transitioned from street racing to heist action to terrorist plot and will be the franchise’s biggest opening by far. Audiences gave it an ‘A’ CinemaScore which will help word of mouth. Universal claims the cost of the movie is $160M. F&F6 debuted in 2,409 North American theaters for Thursday 10 PM late shows and Friday midnights and made $6.5M which speeded past Fast 5‘s $3.8M late show grosses from an uncrowded April 29, 2011. It debuts day and date in 59 total international territories this weekend and going into Friday already has $53.4M from 34 international markets, opening #1 in all of them as the franchise’s biggest. Another 25 territories release Friday. Universal has six more territories to open including Trinidad on May 29, Australia and New Zealand on June 6, Venezuela on June 21, Japan on July 6 and China on July 20. No studio has ever dared to keep changing the genre of a successful franchise – but chairman Adam Fogelson and co-chairman Donna Langley again hired Chris Morgan to freshen it yet again. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is back as a federal agent alongside Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and of course director Justin Lin (behind the camera for the 4th time) and longtime producer Neal Moritz. It also stars Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges, Elsa Pataky plus newcomers Luke Evans and Gina Carano.

The #2 film is Warner Bros’ The Hangover Part III co-financed with Legendary Pictures making $14.5M Friday after earning $11.7M for its Wednesday late shows/Thursday midnights. As the only R-rated comedy, it’s aiming for a $52M Memorial Weekend from 3,555 North American theaters and $63.5M cume over 5 1/2 days. Studio claims the cost was $103M. Pic’s $11.7 million start for Wednesday late shows and Thursday midnights was miniscule compared to H2‘s April 2011 Thursday opening of $31.6M – the highest-grossing opening day ever for a live-action comedy. Audiences only gave The Hangover Part III a ‘B’ CinemaScore compared to the ‘A-‘ which the sequel scored. Reviews were only 26% positive on Rotten Tomatoes compared to H2‘s 34% which was considered embarrassingly awful. (By contrast, both F&F6 and Epic both scored 70+% positive RT reviews.) But worldwide moviegoers really like this mindless summer crap. Internationally, the comedy is taking off in only 3 markets this weekend – the UK, Australia and New Zealand with strong early numbers. Next weekend H3 opens in 32 markets, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil. Memorial Weekend wouldn’t have been so crowded if either Warner Bros (who came late and then moved from a Friday to Thursday wide release) or Universal (who tagged it from the beginning) blinked. “But they just stared each other down as they both were driving off a cliff,” one rival studio exec says. Strange because the weekend of May 31st stayed open until Will Smith’s After Earth grabbed it. H3 is positioned as “the epic conclusion to the trilogy of mayhem and bad decisions” and “fans have to see how the most popular comedy franchise of all time ends”. Director Todd Phillips returns Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms and nemesis Ken Jeong to Las Vegas where it all began.

And #4 right now is Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios’ 3D toon Epic which is looking at $9.1M Friday and expecting $44.2M in 3,882 U.S. and Canadian locations for Memorial Weekend.That’s about par for the course for original content animated films in a very competitive environment. (Opening weekends for recent comps range from $37M-$39M. This may pop since audiences gave it an ‘A’ CinemaScore which will help word of mouth. Sibling of the hit Ice Age and Rio franchises looks more earnest and less fun but benefits greatly from what has been a drought of family fare since March when The Croodsopened. Fox claims cost was $93M for this Chris Wedge-directed animated actioner with screenplay credited to James V. Hart & William Joyce, Dan Shere, and Tom J. Astle & Matt Ember. Producers were Lori Forte and Jerry Davis. Beyoncé was the cast ‘get’ plus Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler. Blake Anderson, and Judah Friedlander. Epic began its $14.5M overseas rollout last weekend in only 16 markets – only 3 top – with 20 additional international territories opening this Memorial Weekend.

There are also 3 proven blockbusters still in the marketplace: Disney/Marvel’s Iron Man 3 in 3,424 theaters, Warner Bros/Village Roadshow’s The Great Gatsbyin 3,090 locations (which Friday crossed $100M domestic after only 14 days and is the first Baz Luhrmann film to do so), and Paramount/Skydance’s Star Trek In Darknessin 3,907 theaters.

184 Comments

Considering the sequel grossed 10.1 at the midnights when it opened, I’d say this one is belly-flopping hard. Funny’s cousin, not funny.

Tony • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Yes but this movie was supposed to open on Friday at first but then they changed their minds. 3M is less than a third of 10M but I doubt this movie will only gross less than a third of Part II’s opening weekend.

Just Sayin • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

@cinemacon
“All these press people back stage are asking me, ‘are you nervous?,’” Phillips said about opening against Fast 6. He dismissed the competition by saying “Come on it’s Vin Diesel,”
Oooops.

bcuz • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

dude forgot about Michelle Rodriguez – BAM!

Melroser • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Surprise, surprise. WB is going down in flames with Hangover while Paramount is crushing it with Star Trek Into Darkness.

Umm how is Paramount crushing anything with Star Trek Into Darkness, its made less money at this point than the last Star Trek movie did in the same number of day.
Into Darkness is underperforming, and when you factor in the higher budget and the higher ticket prices for 3D and IMAX compared to Star Trek 11’s lower ticket prices being a 2D only release. Into Darkness isn’t crushing anything.

Anonymous • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

After 6 days of release the new ST is at 103.8 and the 2009 ST was at 99.0M… Underperforming at least initially, ye somewhat but its trend is superior so far to its prequel. We’ll see how it holds up vs two movies catering to the same audience this weekend

William Bradley • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Wrong.

Through the first seven days, STID is running a million behind ST09.

And that doesn’t count ticket inflation and the 3D mark-up.

DRM • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Uh, that’s $103.8m after 7 days for Into Darkness, not after 6 days. Star Trek ’09 was at $104.6m after 7 days.

I think you’re misreading the numbers. Into Darkness opened on a Thursday, a day earlier than Star Trek 1, so it’s current total of $103.8M is its SEVEN-day tally. To compare it to the previous Star Trek, you have to look back a day — $99.0 vs. $98.4. Into Darkness is still a little behind the last Star Trek.

Jake • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Hah ye my bad

took ny numbers from day 6 on thenumbers without noticing that they had “day 1″ as “day 0″ for the new one (something they typically never do regardless of which weekday it opens on). Weird :)

If Nikki’s estimates are correct its drop will be 47% compared to 46% for the last one so ye not looking like it will get a higher (domestic) total gross

joeyC • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Wow what happened to Eli Roth’s

AFTERSHOCK??

In 3 weeks it hasn’t even made 100K?

sheeesh now that’s scary!

sally • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

melroser, you are so in denial! JJ’s star trek remakes abominations are flops, plain and simple and these are well known facts! Star wars is going to flop with this shit head, but then again, they will not be official star wars movies, they will be phony star wars movies that are crap!!!

Jon • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I am so glad I don’t know you personally, Sally. So very, very glad.

Liam • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Hmm. Get your facts straight woman. The first one was one of the best recieved reboots of all time. Both critically and box office wise. The sequel, while intitially posted lower-than-excpected opening weekend numbers, it’s now tracking ahead of it’s predecessor, which would probably translate in a 250 mill +- total domestic, depending on how it responds to the crowded market. Internationally it’s going to do double or more. And critically it’s even better received than last years The Avengers on metacritic. So all in all: it’s doing great.
Yeah, and even tough it seems the hardcore trekkies hate it, it still received a A cinemascore from the general audience.

William Bradley • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Actually, as you can see above, or by checking your facts in the first place, STID is running slightly behind ST09 in domestic box office.

It will do better abroad because they’ve put a big marketing effort in.

They are also spending far more money.

From my own experience in theaters, I think there is a problem with Cinemascore.

And while most STID reviews end up relatively positive, the reviews themselves are frequently very mixed.

There is also a problem with RottenTomatoes, which equates JoeSchmoFanBoy with the New York Times. (Which absolutely panned STID.)

That is all.

for • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

keep your bias out of this, man.

STID was loaded with plot holes, cliches, and it completely ripped off Wrath of Kahn instead of going where…. uh, “no man has gone before.” Star Trek is supposed to be about exploration, optimism.. not ratting out terrorists and post 9-11 dreck.

And yes, STID underperformed no matter how you cut it.

Tony C • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

For,
There was a discussion somewhere in print that JJ Abrams explained that even though this was an alternate time line some things had to occur in both time lines. Not necessarily in the same sequence but in some alternate form. That is why Khan existed and Kirk had his story line.I realize that it is just a movie but this was the theory put forth to account for having Khan as a villain. I thought it was done quite well. I wish I could find the link :(

PGO • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

You call a motion picture director and a member of the Academy a shit head? I am sorry but there is something wrong with that. Would it not be better for you to simply say that you do not enjoy his moving pictures?

PRESIDENT MAO • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Discounting the extra cost of 3d ticket prices is obvious STID is behind the first Abrams’ Star Trek.

Tony C • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Sally,you are a buffoon.It has to be the only logical explanation.

Inside the Gates • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

As I have written before. As good as STID is, and it is good, it is going to struggle to make a profit because of the extremely high marketing costs as well as the huge loss of Star Trek the Video Game. This was a catastrophe for the franchise short term and long term. CBS is furious.

Alboone • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I have to say it was pretty damn solid. Certainly waaay better than II. I think it’ll have legs. Jeong practically steals the movie.

Daw Johnson • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Well, Jeong’s unbelievably awful and unfunny. So if he steals the show, this must really be a bad one.

Chris • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I can’t believe it scored that much. C’mon America, we can do better. Remember, you’ve got the geezer Hangover rip off coming later this year, too!

Arktik • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Any film that thinks a giraffe decapitation is funny does not deserve an audience. Not hilarious just traumatizing. It should come with an warning since it plays this cruel animal killing gag more than a few times.

Reggie Van Luster • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I don’t even want to know how many giraffes died during the production.

Mark • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Um. You are aware that they don’t actually KILL giraffes, etc., in movies – right? CGI? etc.? Special effects? Cutting?

mba • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Promoting animal cruelty in any way is detestable. Sadistic creeps think it’s funny. I will boycott any future title that has anything to do with the people involved in this pathetic, desperate lunge for disappearing box office revenue. Shame on them.

dexx • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Wow Mark, the concept of sarcasm or a joke is obviously way above you. For you to even consider that he was being serious let alone actually believe he was? Wow.

Reggie Van Luster • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I hooked him good, didn’t I?

Mike • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Whoosh

Bill H • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Let’s not act like the giraffe is totally blameless though. It takes two to tango and giraffes have provoked A TON of violence throughout the years!

Anonymous • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

That giraffe was asking for it, I say.

gotonemo • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

An hour and 40 minutes is an appropriate length for a comedy. How long do you want it to be?

jake • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

@gotonemo

Typical Nikki comment – she always tries to belittle the movies she doesn’t like, most often with opininated ridiculous statements like that one. Part of the fun of reading her columns is how unanalytical and frankly silly they sometimes are :)

From what I read, most films average 120 minutes running time. Most scripts are 120 pages long and each page translates into one minute of film. Comedies and Animations run an average of 90 minutes. Summer Blockbuster run an average of 120 minutes. Hope this answers some of your questions.

sauce07 • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

North by Northwest is 136 min, not 1 hour 36 min.

Matt C. • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I’m much more excited for Fast & Furious 6 than for The Hangover III. I’ll go see it just to complete the trilogy, but my interest has waned considerably…as has America’s, apparently…

Larro • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I expect Fast & Furious 6 to dominate the weekend but it will be close.

RatBasterd • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

No it won’t.

Stefan • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

How can it dominate but be close? It’s either one or the other, and I’m guessing “dominate” is more likely. WB released H3 a day and a half early in an effort to have an overall five and a half day cume that would be closer to FF6’s four day total. But FF6 has a few huge advantages over H3: (1) it’s not rated R, and can potentially even play as a family film; (2) the franchise plays very well to Latino/a and Black audiences (which have shown repeatedly an ability to generate big up-front numbers); (3) the previous installment was very well liked, and the marketing has been spot on to take advantage of affection for the franchise as a whole; (4) multiple attractive male leads plus multiple strong female characters is greater than one Bradley Cooper, and should arguably lead women choosing between these titles to prefer FF6; (5) it’s a “must see on the big screen” action film versus a 100 minute comedy; (6) except for Gatsby, it arguably has the most romantic/sexual content to draw couples. In short, it’s hard to see H3 as really winning in any demo this weekend. Its best bet is adult males making multiple trips to the theater and seeing both flicks.

I’ll have to resign myself to never understanding why people flock to this franchise. I can only console myself with the theory that either people are EXTREMELY desperate for entertainment, regardless of its nature (like the Romans in ye olden days of the gladiator or the public beheadings by Madame la Guillotine), or Hollywood and the media have succeeded in dumbing down the masses.

ZIg • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I guess you’ll have to stick to rewatching Howard’s End and The Hours over the long weekend.

I drank an entire bottle of Scotch after watching The Hours. Miserable experience.

Dittor • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I drank an entire bottle of Scotch while watching the Hangover. Awesome experience.

rico • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I would have to drink 2 bottles of scotch to seat thru Fast and Furious.

Reggie Van Luster • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

It makes you a classic moviegoer. There’s a certain brand of snob commenter (on Deadline and elsewhere) who can’t accept the idea that people like you and me can enjoy a Vin Diesel movie as much as the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson.

Jcar • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Good films:

Hangover 1, Howards End

Terrible films:

Hangover 2, Hangover 3, The Hours

Dack Rouleau • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I really wish people would stop comparing modern entertainment to the gladiator games. It’s a wildly over-the-top comparison, especially when people honestly believe the two have something even vaguely in common. I don’t care how nauseatingly lowbrow the movie is, or if it’s ten times as graphic as the entire Saw franchise: It is nothing like actually watching people actually slaughter each other. I lost my faith in humanity a long time ago, but if you think smoking a bowl and laughing at the idiocy of The Hangover III is somehow comparable to cheering when a slave takes a sword to the chest, then you’re too melodramatic to be taken seriously.

KT • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

True enough…the proper modern-day analogy to gladiator games is the soul-poisoning UFC.

Dack Rouleau • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

No one will ever read this belated reply, but I don’t think UFC is comparable, either. Nobody is killed in those matches, either. At least not deliberately.

Fred M • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

“Brief running time”? 1 hour and 40 minutes is the perfect length for a comedy. Can we please discourage making them longer?

Frank • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

John Waters says 80 minutes is the right length for a movie.

Sean • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Agreed. Mel Brooks says no longer than 90 minutes. All Woody films are between 80-90 minutes (average). How long should a comedy be? As long as it’s funny. No longer.

michael • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

“How long should a comedy be? As long as it’s funny.”
Perfect!
By that definition, THE HANGOVER PART III should run about three minutes.

Tony • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

My prediction is $65-70 million opening weekend(4-day).

film lover • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

This morning’s tracking shows Hangover and Fast neck and neck for the weekend. I call BS on it!! I think tracking is way off. Fast kills Hangover this weekend. Watch.

Becky • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Hangover III at least isn’t the same formula as I and II. I thought Zach stole the show. it won’t beat Fast and the Furious, but it won’t flop.

Blake • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Hangover III did have a last-minute schedule change, and its midnight gross was in line with Star Trek and Great Gatsby. With that in mind, the 3-day portion of the weekend should be in the $50 to $60 million range, with a five-day gross in the $90 million range ($70-75 million 4-day).

Fast Six will win the weekend with a $95-$105 million 4-day gross, Epic should settle for around $45 million for the extended frame.

Watcher • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

The international B O is better than before so it evens out…just saying no one will be saying ST is a flop

shills • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

the abysmal and total dreck and hack job remake sequel and the remake crap, abysmal, total dreck and hack job before it are both flops, deal with it, star wars is toast and dead with jj hack abrams!!!!!

Wonk • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Trekkies are funny!

David Kavek • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

At some point, you gotta think the studios will start counting the “weekend” as beginning on a Tuesday!

Sadly, there’s some precedent for this, as most CD and records (remember those?) as well as DVDs are released on a Tuesday. Why? It goes back to the days when records were shipped to record stores and would arrive typically on a Tuesday. The Tuesday tradition stuck even after technology rendered it pointless.

bmg • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

“At some point, you gotta think the studios will start counting the “weekend” as beginning on a Tuesday!”

That already happened with Transformers. And it worked.

beianhawks1 • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Back in the day (the 40’s) almost all films opened on Wednesdays.
What changed that policy???

Mark • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I think it was due to bad word of mouth. For bad movies, word circulated throughout the rest of the week. When the weekend came people that originally planned to see the movie didn’t go.

Moving openings to Friday’s prevented that. Not enough time for word to spread that the movie sucked.

vandelay • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Wednesday was opening day because that was the one weekday when department stores in cities stayed open past 6 and shoppers were out and about. The suburbanization and malling of America in the sixties ended the primacy of “downtown” and the movie palaces there.

vandelay • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I failed to add that the Wednesday to Friday opening day change was also occasioned by having to spend advertising dollars to open a picture on Wednesday, and spend more to establish it for the weekend. Television had become the essential part of media spending that until that time had been composed of newspaper and radio.

It should also be noted that distributors had seen films not open well on a Wednesday, and exhibitors replacing them on Friday. Friday openings at least got the weekend.

Esquire • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Star Trek isn’t ‘crushing it’ and it’s more sluggish than it should have been but it isn’t a total disaster either. International will be stronger than before but ultimately the budget on it was too high and that just means that any third film will need to work with a smaller budget.

In and of itself however, it’s not a particularly bad film.

I’m going to catch FF6 at some point because it looks like junk calorie fun for a couple hours but Hangover 3 won’t come close to making domestically what the first two did. The awful-ness of the second film screwed them over too much.

animaniacs • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

you have got to be kidding? it was awful, I nearly walked out it was so bad, bad like the first remake.

Daw Johnnson • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

The first remake that everybody loved and got like a 95% RT score?

S4H1 • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Into Darkness has a lot more competition for viewers than ST09 did. It may end up with similar box office and fewer tickets sold than ST09, but that is a bit disappointing moreso than a disaster. The international numbers jump will pay for the added production cost. I enjoyed STID very much and I’ll be getting the 3D bluray for sure.

Scott • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I assumed that HANGOVER III was going to suck b/c my friend invited me to an advanced screening for it. You see, he’s in charge of the advanced screenings for a local theater chain and I’ve noticed that every movie he’s ever held an advanced screening for ended up bombing.

Rikki Pinke • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

If your friend is really responsible for all the bombings, then the studios should not allow him to hold anymore advanced screenings, thereby avoiding further destruction.

Benjamin Smith • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Hangover I: 1:40min
Hangover II: 1:42 min
Hangover III: 1:40 min

I love you Nikki, but sometimes…

yep • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Yes, this brings to mind the old Annie Hall “horrible food… and such small portions” line. One of the worst things about Apatow’s last few movies have been how often they go longer than two hours…

nathaniel essex • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

The only reason I am going to the theatres this weekend, is to see the awesome new trailer to the awesome looking ‘The Wolverine’, the only movie that looks any good this summer. Been dissapointed severally with Iron Man 3, blame that on jj abrams for his pathetic input in the film. Gatsby was a horrible remake and star trek remake sequel was trash as usual from anything jj related, pure trash.

Fast and Furious 6 is the movie I am seeing, seeing as ‘The Wolverine’ trailer is attached to it, plus fast and furious 6 looks like a lot of fun and a good movie.

‘The Wolverine’ is going to be awesome, first trailer was awesome, but the second one is even more awesome, have lost count of how many times I have watched both trailers to ‘The Wolverine’. The X-Men films have been awesome, I do not care what anyone says, all five X-Men films have been great, and ‘The Wolverine’ looks like it will be great as well, also ‘X-Men – Days Of Future Past’ sounds awesome!

Annony • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Uh, thanks for your input, Fox marketing intern?

S4H1 • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Observe the poor grammar and repetitive statements. This is a child.

Mike the Movie Tyke • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

It’s always funny when a publicist writes like an 11-year-old.

MELISSA • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

JJ needs to be fired from star wars, I absolutely hate that he is going to ruin the star wars legacy.

The prequels are great as are the original trilogy, it is not going to be great with jj, jj is going to ruin the star wars films beyond repair!!

Reggie Van Luster • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

“The prequels are great…”

You lost me there.

Sally • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Tons of people like the prequels especially the awesome Episode 3, if you can not see that, then you have severe case of denial

I would like to see these “tons” of people and then if the tons are over 12, have a serious movie marathon to educate them on what a good film is. Jake Lloyd jumping up and screaming “yipee” was cinematic blasphemy.

DO • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Rotten Tomatoes. 80% Fresh. I believe most of the critics Rotten Tomatoes tracks are over 12. But i haven’t checked.

Daw Johnson • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

I’ve heard some people praise Ep 3, but I’ve never heard anyone refer to the prequels as collectively great, especially given the insistence that the 2nd one was one of the worst movies of all time.

And I’ve NEVER heard any insistence that they’re on par with the original trilogy.

cookmeyer1970 • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

agreed. the 2nd was terrible.

bitter trekkie • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

Over the years I’ve seen a smattering of people defend the prequels but I always assume they’re off their meds.

Those people are dufuses. The prequels are entertaining to young children, that’s it. The plot is on the level of the Twilight films. The acting is flat, the characters decisions (which is what makes Ep 3 terrible, what with Ani’s inexplicable decision to side with Palpatine for no reason at all). I’ll just stop because it’s been covered ad nauseum already.

Andrew • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

The Star Wars legacy has already been ruined, JJ can’t make it any worse. His 2009 Star Trek reboot was vastly superior to Episode 3.

Bob Violence • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

The studio tells me early numbers in Australia indicate a strong opening day of A$1.75M from 494 screens, dominating 80% of the Top 5. NZ also opened big, controlling over 70% of the Top 5.

A big, unmentioned caveat: Australia/NZ is one of the very few markets where Hangover 3 is opening before Furious 6 (which comes out on June 6th there). Almost every other overseas market is getting FF6 this weekend and TH3 next weekend. And even with no competitors except STID (entering its third weekend) and IM3 (entering its second month), TH3 still dropped significant from part two’s AU$2.1m opening. That doesn’t bode well for other markets where it’s going up against FF6 on its second weekend, especially since FF6 has great word of mouth so far and TH3…um, doesn’t.

JohnnyComes • on May 27, 2013 8:43 am

It seems that Jeff Bewkes’ ‘great’ statement about franchises is coming to a dead-end.